Plant propagating pot and method of making same



F. G. PAXTON July 8, 1947.;

PLANT PROPAGATING POT AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed Jan. 1, 1945 aRm ax w J W v E v Patented July 8, 1947 I 'PIIANT PROPAGATING POT METHODOFMAKING Floyd G. Paxton, Rivrsidafialif. Application January 1, 1945;Serial matter/ V Claims. 1 r

This invention relates to greenhouse supplies and particularly to anovel plant propagating pot and the method of making the-same.

'It i standard nursery practise-to transplant small seedling plan-tsto-shallow trays known as flatsfrom which these-plants are'sold.

It is an object ofthis invention to provide a novel plant propagatingpotwhich maybe used to divide up'the earth in a flat so that the eartharound each plant may be removed with the latter relatively easily, andwithout breaking the earthaway from'the plant.

It is another object of the invention to provide such a pot which takesup very little room in the flat and which is made of an inexpensivematerial which is ultimately absorbed into the soil, but whichtemporarily retains its strength and shape to perform the functions of aplant propagating pot.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a plant propagatingpot which may be made up in flat folded form and be readily expandedinto proper form for use and which, when assembled with other similarpots in a flat, will provide an upwardly extending protrusion which maybe used as a handle to lift this pot from among the others in the flat.

It is another object of the invention to provide a novel method ofmaking such a plant propagating pot as will permit this to be veryinexpensively produced, and. which will provide drainage between thebottom of the pot and the floor of the fiat.

The manner of accomplishing the foregoing objects, as well as furtherobjects and advantages wil1 be made manifest in the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a corner portion of a flat containing agroup of the plant propagating pots of my invention assembled in a flat,the latter being broken away to reveal the relationship of the pots whenso assembled.

Fig. 2 is a, plan view of a piece of flattened tubular stockillustrating the preferred mode employed in the method of my inventionto produce the propagating pot thereof.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2and illustrating the manner in which the tubular stock shown in Fig. 2is produced.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the numeral l0 designates acorner portion of a nurserymans flat whichis a shallow tray having endsH', sides I 2 and a bottom l3 which constitutes afloor for the flat. 1

Shown in the flat lfl'is a fragmentary group of four plantpropagating-pots 1-5 which constitute preferred embodiments of thepresent invention. These pots are produced from a flattened tubularstock I6, preferably formed of paper. I Asshown in Fig. 3, the stock 5-s produced of sheets of paper llhaving short side flaps I'B-and longside flaps l-Q'folded from the edges of the paper il in overlappingrelation, and pressed together with an adhesive therebetween.

The paper I! is of various weights depending upon the degree ofdurability whichit is desired that the pct 15 have. This paper is alsopreferably impregnated with asphalt to make it resistant to water andattacks of insects for a limited period of time.

Having been thus made up, the flattened tubular stock I6 is fed througha suitable cutting machine which severs sections from the leading end ofthe stock as it is fed to the cutter.

In Fig. 2 the numeral 20 designates the lines on which the cutter seversthe stock I6 to produce plant propagating pots l5. As the Stock I6 isfed to the cutter, it is creased centrally as indicated at 2|, so thatthe individual pots l5 may be readily unfolded from flat condition toform square pots as shown in Fig. 1.

When the pots are thus unfolded, the character of the lines 20 causesrecesses 22 and protrusions 23 to appear at the corners, both at thebottom and top of each pot. At the bottom the protrusions 23 form legswhich support the pot on the fiat floor I3, while the recesses 22provide drainage openings through which water may drain from the soil inthe pot.

When the pots are assembled side by side in uniform order relative toeach other within a flat as shown in Fig. l, the protrusions 23 of eachpot at the upper end thereof come opposite upper recesses 22 of adjacentpots. The pots l5 are so dimensioned, of course, as to just fill thetray in, and the protrusions 23 thus provide very convenient handles bywhich individual pots within the tray may be lifted upwardly when acustomer elects to purchase the plants contained within such pots.

The earth in all the pots I5 is packed down when the planting in theflat is made. Thus when any pot is removed individually the earth inthat pot remains in place about the roots of the plant therein in spiteof the fact that the pots [5 are bottomless.

From the foregoing it is seen that I have provided a novel paper plantpropagating pot having numerous advantages and a method of productionmaking these pots very inexpensive.

While I have shown and described but a single preferred embodiment ofthe propagating pot. of my invention, and a single method of producingthe same, it is to be understood that various changes may be made inthese without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope ofthe appended claims.

I claim:

1. A paper plant propagating pot comprising a square paper tube havingcastellated upper and lower edges exhibiting alternate protrusions andrecesses, the protrusions of said bottom edge providing balancedsupporting feet for said pot, the recesses of said bottom edge providingdrainage from said pot, a protrusion of said upper edge on a given sideof the pot being adapted to lie opposite and extend above a recess ofthe upper edge of another such pot placed in side by side relationtherewith.

2. A pot as defined in claim 1 in which the recesses in the bottom edgeare coextensive with the protrusions in the upper edge, and theprotrusions in the bottom edge are coextensive with the recesses in theupper edge.

3. A not as defined in claim 1 in which recesses occupy diagonallyopposite corners of the upper edge, and protrusions the other corners ofsaid upper edge.

4. A pot as defined in claim 1 in which recesses occupy diagonallyopposite corners of the upper edge, and protrusions the other corners ofsaid upper edge and in which the same is true of the 4 lower edgeexcepting that lower edge recesses are on the same corners as upper edgeprotrusions, and lower edge protrusions are on the same corners as upperedge recesses.

5. A paper plant propagating pot comprising a paper tube, the upper andlower edges of which exhibit alternate vertically protruding portionsand recesses, the protruding portions of th bottom edge providingsupport for said pot, the recesses of said bottom edge providingdrainage from said pot, a protrusion of said upper edge on a given sideof said pot being adapted to lie opposite and extend above a recess ofthe upper edge of another such pot placed in side by side relationtherewith.

. FLOYD G. PAXTON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PA'I'ENTS Number Name I Date 2,006,822 Andrews July 2,1935 1,566,077 Davidson Dec. 15, 1925 1,767,629 Wa1ter 1 June 24, 19301,684,458 Smith Sept. 18, 1928 2,247,341 Anderson June 24, 1941 894,211Kaump 'Ju1y 28, 1908 OTHER REFERENCES Paper Golf Tees by the Strip,Popular Mechanics Sept. 1939. (Copy located in Division 40;) e

